Sen. Bernie Sanders Chairs Hearing on Green Jobs

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) chaired a Senate hearing today to explore how the United States is competing with other nations for green jobs.

With products ranging from laptop computers to American flags already made in China, the world’s second largest economy, the Asian nation is now moving aggressively to corner world markets for solar, wind and other alternative and sustainable energy technologies.

Sanders, chairman of the Green Jobs and New Economy Subcommittee, said the United States should keep energy jobs in this country.

“We can create good-paying jobs by investing in efficient and sustainable energy technologies,” Sanders said. “Moving toward green jobs is terribly important for our economy, it’s important for our environment, and it’s important for from the perspective of not getting us into wars for oil.”

One of the witnesses was John Danner, CEO of Northern Power Systems, a wind turbine company based in Barre. Vt.

“While we are proud of what we have accomplished to date, we are confident that as we grow Northern Power into a leader within the global wind turbine industry, we will create thousands if not tens of thousands of jobs,” he told the committee.

Danner told Sanders that wind power is competitive with other technologies to generate electricity.

Other witnesses at the hearing included Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers; Paul Cicio, president of Industrial Energy Consumers of America; David Montgomery, vice president of Charles River Associates; and Kate Gordon, vice president of Energy Policy at the Center for American Progress.